Break the Let Down Cycle
Are you consistently feeling let down by associates, clients or employees? How can you break the pattern? And, how do you know when its time to call it quits in a frustrating business relationship?
I’m sure I won’t be the first to tell you that prevention is key. And it begins with associating with the right people. Trust your gut overall when it comes to making decisions on who to hire. Most people constantly drop small hints about themselves that give you clues about how your work relationship will pan out.
Hire people whose passion matches or exceeds your own. Dedicated employees will rarely let you down because they want to improve. They can take criticism.
Consider whether or not your employees can afford to work for you. Consider what you know of their personal life, and if the responsibility matches their paycheck. Under-payment will cause us all to eventually lose motivation.
If you feel that you’ve chosen your team carefully, and they’re still letting you down – the problem may be with your own communication. We all have trouble with communicating once in a while – and it can be a simple problem to solve.
Think: who is letting you down right now? And why? Are they breaking promises? Are they turning in poor quality work? What is their un-professionalism costing your business?
Have you made your rules and goals clear with your team? Have you addressed problems as soon as they arise?
When an employee who you thought had tons of potential suddenly begins to drop the ball – you need to have a one on one with him right away. And, it’s okay to be cool about it. But also be honest. Tell him what he’s costing the business and what the consequence will be. Then get validation from him that he understands.
If your gut tells you that an employee is good for the company – give the guy another chance. But follow through on all of YOUR promises. That means you need to have a limit for how much you can take.
Its hard to let potentially good folks go – but the consequences to keeping them may be even worse.
If you are on the brink of a breakdown because of some people who work for you, or even people you are working for – cutting them loose will do both of you good.
Recently, I had to cut ties with a potentially big client. Talking to the guy every day was giving me a perpetual stomach ache. I originally went into that project for exposure and money. Not so much passion. The result was that I couldn’t live up to his expectations no matter how hard I tried.
And he drove me nuts and took time away from more productive work.
You will know when it’s time to cut your ties. Often it’s done on a case by case basis. If you trust yourself and make yourself clear – you will know how to set your limits.
One Comment
David Askaripour
November 5th, 2006 at 6:58 pm
Awesome article! I’ve been in so many situations when people have let me down from the start and I, wrongly, have kept them around only to end up never working with them again. Thanks!
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